A dental barrier membrane for guided bone regeneration is a device used in dental surgery, such as implants, to induce bone regeneration in a bone defect. When applied to a bone defect, a dental barrier membrane functions to mechanically block the migration of epithelial or connective tissue cells into the bone defect, thus retaining the space until bone regeneration.
At first, dental barrier membranes were made of non-biodegradable materials such as polytetrafluoroethylene, cellulose acetate, silicon rubber, or polyurethane. However, barrier membranes made of non-biodegradable synthetic polymers are apt to cause inflammation or tissue necrosis because of their poor biocompatibility.
To overcome such problems, biocompatible, natural materials for use in biodegradable barrier membranes have recently been studied. There are no significant differences in bone regeneration between biodegradable barrier membranes and non-biodegradable barrier membranes. When applied in clinical practice, however, the biodegradable barrier membranes developed thus far cannot retain their shapes due to their insufficient tensile strength, and thus are likely to fail in securing the space where the tissue of interest is to grow, which may lead to secondary inflammation.
Now, research has been directed toward the development of materials for dental barrier membranes that are biocompatible and have sufficient tensile strength to allow the barrier membranes to retain their shape.
With regard to the related art, reference may be made to Korean Patent Unexamined Publication Application No. 10-2014-0003942 (issued on Jan. 10, 2014, titled “Dental Barrier Membrane Having Good Growth of Soft Tissues or Bone Tissues”) and Korean Patent No. 10-1403473 (issued on Jun. 11, 2014, titled “Dental Membrane”).